December 14, 2014

[I]mplicit biases... are measured by... the computerized Implicit Association Test, which has been taken by over two million people online at the website Project Implicit... people who, for some reason, chose to take an online test measuring their implicit biases....

Overall, looking at a map like this one tells us something pretty crucial to our understanding of racial bias: It is everywhere....

We have a huge amount of work to do.

The #1 most-liked comment at WaPo is:

Are you serious? An online test of "people who, for some reason, chose to take an online test measuring their implicit biases"? Do you even know if they entire sample set was white? If not, then you can just throw this nonsense out. And why just test white bias? As noted below, everyone has some bias.

Garbage. This test, this article, and this newspaper. Thanks Bezos.

To that comment, somebody says: "Only guilty people get defensive. It's pretty obvious who knows they are racially biased by who gets upset about articles like this."

55 comments:

What a beautiful circle of logic at the end--if you say it's wrong, well, that's just evidence it's right. Never mind that the reasoning of the first commenter is solid and devastating, it's anti and so it's more evidence for.

If one promotes all discussion of race to the same level of intensity with which a religious zealot proselytizes for his faith, then everyone who's neutral is a heathen and everyone who disagrees is a heretic.

Actually, when confronted with accusations of wrongdoing - and in this case bias (which we all know means racism here) innocent people get highly defensive. Usually very angry. Anyone who has done interviews of suspects will tell you that. Guilty people more often than not try to fake their way out.

In his May column "Rebutting Mark Cuban on Bigotry," NY Times op-ed writer Charles M. Blow provided data showing that roughly 4 out of 5 blacks, whites, Hispanics and Asians in America are racially bigoted. Only 1 out of 5 Americans regard people of other races neutrally.

One might have all kinds of biases regarding one's in-group and various out-groups, but that would not answer the question of whether one would take actions based on those biases.

Imagine a [black person/woman] who actually believed the trope (tripe?) that, "In order to make it in this country a [black person/woman] has to be twice as good and work twice as hard". Wouldn't such a person always want to hire [black people/women]?

Bias is the new word for racist, don't you know? It is not that you are a racist but now you are biased. Obama said that in one of the many interviews he gave about Ferguson. It is the WH talking point because they know crying racist is out of style now. Disgusting.

You know who gets defensive? Assistant principals who are accused of crimes and who lose their home and job and reputation because of what they did. Oh, you mean she wasn't guilty? It was all made up? Never mind.

If examples like this survey, officer White acting within the constraints of his job description, Eric Gardners succumbing to a hear attack while refusing to follow lawful orders from police officers. Treyvon Martin dying while beating a person on the sidewalk.

If these incidents are the face of supposed racism in America, if these are the chosen examples that demand response from,(who?). If this is the best race baiters like The Most Reverend Al Sharpton, Charlie Rangle, President Obama, AG Eric Holder, can present....Then there is no race problem.

We have a racist president who has hurt race relations and a liberal media constantly fueling black resentment so we can expect something really bad to happen eventually. New York will be a mess in a few years thanks to to the recently elected communist mayor.

The really annoyingly stupid thing here is the way just about everyone assumes that "bias", or even "unconscious bias", is the same thing as "irrational bias", and that this "irrational bias" is both bad by definition and remediable.

Two cave men from competing tribes are foraging in the same patch of woods, each not knowing the other is there.Suddenly they see each other only feet away. In a micro second Caveman A's subconscious mind assesses the appearance of Caveman B, recognizes that it is different than the appearance of himself and his fellow tribesman. This recognition causes an immediate opening of the floodgates and fight or flight chemicals pour into his system. Fear and aggression spike. Without a thought he leaps toward his enemy and plunges his crude spear into Cave man B's chest, forces him to the ground, stabs him again and again until he stops moving. When Caveman B saw Caveman A, he started to ponder the wonderful diversity of the human form, but then he lost his train of thought because he had spear in his chest. Caveman A passed his genes along to future generations. Caveman B did not. So maybe that's what we're up against in our struggle with "bias".

When I moved to Chicagoland 6 years ago and expressed my desire to explore the Windy City, they all warned me to avoid areas south of the Loop, except for the museum areas. They especially told me that if I see large numbers of Black people walking around in whatever area I'm driving in, I should turn around and drive back the way I came. They double-especially told me that if I found myself on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, I should say a quick prayer and step on the gas to hightail it anywhere else.

To paraphrase: "If you get pulled over for making a too-speedy escape, and tell the cops that you're new in town (easily provable by the date on my driver's license) and you tell them about the advice you got and who you got it from, regardless of the officer's skin color he/she will understand and you probably won't get a speeding ticket."

As an addendum to the above, when I first moved to Chicago I owned and drove a black 1998 Cadillac Eldorado. Classy car, in great shape, which often gave the impression that I had money (I don't, at least, not what I consider "money"). It apparently is also a reasonable fascimile of a car that a drug dealer might drive, were he possessed of the same automotive tastes. Either way, I was told, this would serve to make me an inviting target.